New school voucher fight looms

By Gary Scharrerand Peggy Fikac

Updated 10:35 pm, Thursday, October 4, 2012

AUSTIN — A dormant battle to push school vouchers through the Legislature was revived Thursday when Lt. Gov. David Dewhurstnamed Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, to head the Senate Education Committee — virtually ensuring a ferocious fight when a new legislative session opens in January.

Patrick is a strong supporter of school vouchers, which would allow tax money to flow to private and religious schools.

“It is time for bold changes, and I intend to work with Sen. Patrick to shake up the status quo in education and ensure the promise of a world-class education for Texas,” Dewhurst said while repeating his view that “parents must have choices in the education of their children.”

The school voucher issue has triggered some passionate debates but didn't surface during the 2009 and 2011 legislative sessions. The state House cast a decisive 129-8 vote in the 2007 session against school vouchers.

“The possibility of innovation in education is exciting in all areas and cannot be limited by an old debate over ‘vouchers,'” Patrick said after Dewhurst promoted him to head the education committee, effective next year.

“To me, school choice is the photo ID bill of this session,” Patrick said in August. “Our base has wanted us to pass photo voter ID (law) for years, and we did it. They've been wanting us to pass school choice for years. This is the year to do it, in my view.”

A Republican-backed voter ID law, deemed “emergency legislation,” was passed in 2011 but was rejected by the U.S. Justice Department this year, and found to discriminate against minorities and the poor. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case to override the federal block.

Texas Parent PAC has taken a sharp interest in school vouchers. The organization backs Democrats and Republicans who pledge support for public education.

“It's an extremely important issue to us because vouchers can be just so destructive and harmful for public education,” Texas Parent PAC founder and chairwoman Carolyn Boyle said.

“We do not support candidates who advocate for privatization of public schools,” Boyle said.

Most public education groups are expected to fight school vouchers.

Texas State Teachers Association President Rita Haecker said her members hope the Senate majority will not allow Patrick's appointment “to turn undue attention to a privatization sideshow that does not address the needs of the overwhelming majority of Texas students.”

Haecker said Patrick's private school voucher priority was “out of touch.” Texans want “real solutions for students and educators who have been forced by historic education cuts to work in crowded classrooms with inadequate resources,” she said.

A fight over school vouchers likely would start at the conclusion of a school finance trial involving more than 600 school districts that claim the state is not providing adequate or equitable funding for some 5 million public school children.

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said state lawmakers “will have the opportunity to build consensus in support of specific school-choice proposals” and offered general support for the idea.

“I support more parental involvement and encourage parents to play a larger role in their children's education,” Straus said.

The Senate leadership changes also include the removal of Democratic Sen. Judith Zaffirini of Laredo as Higher Education chairwoman.

It's Dewhurst's right to reorganize the Senate leadership as he sees fit, she said. “Basically, he is changing directions.”

Zaffirini is against a voucher program but expects a push for it.

“There will be a big push, and the fact that you have a committee chair who is prioritizing the issue bodes well for those who support vouchers,” she said.

Voucher opponents have been able to block school voucher legislation in the Senate in the past.

“This isn't a partisan issue; it's about creating an education system that is relevant to all students and their needs in today's world,” Patrick said.

Zaffirini said she doesn't know of a Democratic senator who supports vouchers.

“I'm against vouchers, because I believe that they will certainly disrupt and damage the public school system,” she said.

Gov. Rick Perry, a voucher supporter who appeared with Zaffirini at a higher education news conference Thursday, said he expects “a very open, vigorous discussion about school choice, parents' choice, students' choice.”

“How that shakes out, and what its final formulization is — I think it's way early in the process,” he said.

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